Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 1 The challenges of a large ERP implementation Microsoft Project User Group Quarterly Meeting May 19 th 2004 Celine Gullace

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 2 The Project The client is a large university, with over 40,000 students. The project is a PeopleSoft Financials integration/implementation for the University, the Medical Center, and the Research Foundation (2,000 end users). The project will cost about $30M, and will span about 2.5 years. The Project Team has 270 team members (about 200 at one time).

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 3 The Project (cont.)

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 4 What kind of Project Office (POF)? Clerical or strategic? –Directors struggled with the POF mandate. –PM goals, tool (MS Project 2000/Project Central), some basic methodology. –Immediate needs for assistance with technical support, planning, and plan maintenance. Pre-conceptions & different skills.

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 5 What kind of POF? (cont.) POF Staff duties: –Pair up with a manager (e.g. GL/Budgets) and assist with planning in MS Project –Maintain the plan when the phase is underway (track actuals, push/delete un-used work, re-level weekly) –Issues analysis: anticipate delays, over-allocations, propose solutions –Reporting on late tasks, actual vs. baseline work, budget tracking –Keep the technical architecture and the methodology sound and consistent –Write users manuals, train new users

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 6 Technical Architecture for the Plans Plan shells for every team: –For each team, one plan per phase –Standard sub-phases: Plan, Execute, Control, Close –Track tasks and “buckets” (e.g. meetings) Sharing data using a database

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 7 Technical Architecture (cont.) Consistency across plans: –To report on the same type of data across all plans –Each task has to be “tagged” with codes.

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 8 Technical Architecture (cont.) Weekly EAC variance by work category Phase status

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 9 Technical Architecture (cont.) Resource submits timesheet Plan Owner accepts work actuals into plan Plan owner re-schedules or deletes un-used work, re-levels plan Plan owner refreshes timesheets

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 10 Challenge 1: new team, new skills Minimal MS Project training No formal Project Management training (e.g. PMI) except for a few directors Relies exclusively on Excel Distrust of MS Project Very little time for sound planning and scheduling Hired for their technical expertise, asked to make room for sound project management

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 11 Challenge 2: learning from experience Planning for the next phase –To be completed under pressure while trying to close the current phase on time – a real challenge. –The managers learned to start earlier with the planning, and the POF helped by setting clear, consistent planning deliverables

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 12 Challenge 2: learning from experience Level of detail –In the beginning, very detailed + low tool maturity = discontent (back to Excel? Buckets?) –Eventually reached a balance Interdependencies –Eventually a balance was reached: critical links remained, the rest of the tasks were Start-constrained Fixed work –Fixed units at first –Work eventually drives everything

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 13 Challenge 2: learning from experience Give/Gets between teams/plans –Give/Get sessions –No links between plans –On a weekly basis, the Give/Gets are filtered out of the Master Plan, sorted by date, and discrepancies are resolved

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 14 Challenge 2: learning from experience Meta plan: a more high-level view, focused on critical interdependencies. “Critical Gantt”: Work is not tracked, only critical dates, interdependencies and critical deliverables Reviewed weekly by the managers and directors, and drives strategic decisions.

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 15 Challenge 2: learning from experience “The tool broke my plan” “My Excel spreadsheet tells me I’m OK” Reporting: too much or too little? QA of data: too much or too little?

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 16 Challenge 3: Anticipating issues Using the task usage view: –The work is planned for the next couple weeks only –After re-planning, there is too much work High Low High Low

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 17 Critical for success: Plan maintenance No plan maintenance means no accurate knowledge of what lies ahead. Several teams had to be “rescued” throughout the project

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 18 Critical for success: Sponsorship & consistency “Doing it ourselves this time” Support of the Project Management tools, while asking all parties to reach common ground. While less time is spent on proper planning, the planning is more accurate because of the Managers’ technical expertise. Strong push for Vanilla: even if end users get new reports, and business processes have to be re- evaluated. Saved the project work and money. Celebrations after each phase and each critical milestones, for the entire team. Keep the team cohesive and motivated.

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 19 Critical for success: Managing Readiness, Managing Change The new system will have 1,800 active end users Introduce the end users to the new system early and keep them engaged throughout the project. During Fit Gap, “Status Pages” on the web and online newsletter kept track of discussions between workgroups, advisory, sponsors (includes FAQs, minutes, key decisions). During Design, “Kick-Off Sessions” provided more than 300 end users and senior fiscal officers with a look at the new system. During Development were held 10 “Conceptual Design Awareness Sessions” (CDAS) to 260 end users, to walk through the business processes, modifications and impacts.

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 20 Critical for success: Managing Readiness, Managing Change Readiness activities: –Benchmarking –Transition Workshops –End User Testing & Training –Playground –Go-Live Kits Partnership Management is a key team: –Constant staff of 10 people, 6 consultants for this project (1 PM staff for 125 users). –Create courses and workbooks, conduct Conference Room Pilots, Help Desk training, Train-The-Trainer sessions, conduct some Training & Pilots, and manage communications with End Users.

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 21 Lessons Learned Ability to anticipate staffing issues, bottlenecks and critical dependencies The team acquires Project Management skills for a lifetime Strong sponsorship & flexibility are critical Include maintenance/tracking of the plans when estimating the Project Management effort Set clear expectations in the beginning and strive for quality This implementation is far more successful than the previous one, which was managed by a third party vendor and done using Excel.

Pcubed MPUG 5/19/04 Presentation 22 Questions? Thank you